Set Description:
With the increased popularity of war comics DC introduced three new titles in Aug-Sep 1952 including Our Army at War, Star Spangled War Stories and All American Men of War. As was often the case with DC two of the comics were simply repurposed older titles. Star Spangled War Stories had been Star Spangled Comics making the switch with issue 84. All American Men of War had been All American Western and prior to that was simply All American Comics, famous for introducing the original Green Lantern. All American Men of War started with issue #127 followed by issue #128 before rebooting back to issue #2. So what happened to issue #1? The heck if I know. The series lasted until Sep/Oct 1966. Our Army at War and Star Spangled War Stories lasted considerably longer closing up shop in Feb 1977.
The most valuable CGC graded issue would be issue #127 (sometimes called issue 1) graded 8.5 at $2100.00. By contrast an issue #1 of Our Army at War graded 8.5 would be $3900 while an 8.5 of issue #1 of Star Spangled War Stories would set you back $1125. For the first 27 issues it’s only profitable to CGC grade 6.0 and up. Following issue 27 only grades 8.5 and up make sense to CGC grade and many of the later issues are priced so low that it would only be profitable to CGC grade extremely high grade issues. That’s if the price guides can be trusted.
Issue 89 is rather famous in that it was the inspiration for the no less than two Roy Lichtenstein pop art paintings. These include arguably his most famous, “Whaam!”, taken from an interior panel by Russ Heath. He also used the lower right hand cover panel by Jerry Grandenetti for his painting “Jet Pilot”. There are only two CGC graded copies of issue 89 both graded 9.2. Looking around I couldn’t find a single issue for sale CGC graded or ungraded in any condition. I would have expected issue 89 to command a premium price but the guide shows no bump and I found a website that claimed to have sold one of the 9.2’s in 2009 for $250.00. I would pay that price in a heartbeat. A less historically important issue would be #82 which featured the first appearance of Native American pilot Johnny Cloud.
All American Men of War seems to be missing a pedigree collector. Not a single issue is CGC graded 9.0 and above until issue 20. Issue 21 has a 9.2 but you have to go to issue 34 to find the next 9.0. Every issue has at least one graded comic but only a few reach double digits. Most issues seem to have highs in the 8.0/8.5 range but many are considerably lower so it’s not unreasonable to buy issue in the 6.0 range. Issue 29 has nothing higher than a 5.5. It also may make sense to buy non CGC graded issues since I see some on the net that claim to have a higher grade than any current CGC graded copy.
There seems to be some idea that All American Men of War are a hot commodity and dealers seem to price them as such. Most issues are priced above guide, some far above guide as in triple the price or more and they do not sell. Also, if you’re trying to accumulate registry points AAMofW is one of the worst comics I’ve ever seen for cost to registry point. From a long term collectibility standpoint its main strength is its scarcity of CGC graded issues. There do seem to be a lot of issues out there but not a ton of high grade. Like all war comics it lacks the appeal of first appearances but if war comics do become hot those scarce high grade issues could see their prices jump.
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